Mobile devices, such as smartphones, now allow users to perform a variety of tasks that traditionally required different types of devices. For example, a user may be able to use different client applications executable at the same mobile device to browse online content, play audio files, capture digital images, view directions for navigating between different locations or points of interest, and exchange messages between other users or computing devices via a mobile communication network. A user may also download and install various third-party client applications at the user's mobile device for viewing information and content related to general topics of interest. An application developer or affiliated service provider may use such a client application to provide different services to the user. Such services may include messaging services to which the user may subscribe in order to receive, for example, real-time message notifications or breaking news alerts at the user's mobile device. The message notifications or alerts that are sent (or “pushed”) by a service provider for a particular client application may be displayed within a general notifications window via a user interface of the operating system at the user's mobile device, even though the client application may be closed or not be actively executing at the mobile device when such notifications are received.
In addition to the message notifications or alerts provided by a service provider associated with the client application, third-party content providers may use the client application to deliver targeted content (e.g., advertisements) to the user at the mobile device. The targeted content that is sent to the user's mobile device at a particular time may be based on, for example, the current geographic location of the mobile device. The delivery of such geo-located content to the user's device may be triggered when, for example, the location of the user's mobile device is determined to be within a designated geographic area, e.g., covered by a geo-fence associated with the targeted content.
In contrast with the aforementioned message notifications that may be displayed within a general notifications window of the operating system's user interface, the targeted content from a third-party content provider is typically displayed within a dedicated portion of a user interface of the client application itself while it executes at the mobile device. An example of such targeted content may include, but is not limited to, an advertisement displayed within a pop-up window for a webpage loaded within a mobile web browser. Thus, conventional solutions for delivering targeted content to a user's mobile device typically require the client application to be open or actively executing at the mobile device in order for the content to be displayed to the user at the mobile device. However, there may be only a slight chance that the client application is actually open or executing at the user's device when the user and mobile device are located within a designated geographical area for delivering targeted content. Hence, the content displayed to the user when the client application is actually open and actively executing at the user's mobile device may not be the targeted content that is relevant to the user's current geographic location. Moreover, conventional solutions may not provide a way to deliver geo-located content that is relevant to the user's current geographic location to the user's device for display to the user at the device at the appropriate time.